Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)
Miniver Cheevy
1Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
2 Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
3He wept that he was ever born,
4 And he had reasons.
5Miniver loved the days of old
6 When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
7The vision of a warrior bold
8 Would set him dancing.
9Miniver sighed for what was not,
10 And dreamed, and rested from his labors;
11He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,
12 And Priam's neighbors.
13Miniver mourned the ripe renown
14 That made so many a name so fragrant;
15He mourned Romance, now on the town,
16 And Art, a vagrant.
17Miniver loved the Medici,
18 Albeit he had never seen one;
19He would have sinned incessantly
20 Could he have been one.
21Miniver cursed the commonplace
22 And eyed a khaki suit with loathing;
23He missed the mediæval grace
24 Of iron clothing.
25Miniver scorned the gold he sought,
26 But sore annoyed was he without it;
27Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,
28 And thought about it.
29Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
30 Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
31Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
32 And kept on drinking.
Notes
11] Thebes: Greek city on the Nile.
Camelot: the mythical city of King Arthur's court.
12] Priam: king of Troy, father of Aeneus (founder of Rome) and killed in the seven years' war with the Greek at Troy.
17] Medici: rulers of Renaissance Florence known for both a love of scholarship and art, and a penchant for a pitiless use of power.
22] a khaki suit: a military uniform, coloured yellow-brown.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Collected Poems, with an introduction by John Drinkwater (London: Cecil Palmer, 1922): 347-48. PS 3535 O25A17 1922 Robarts Library.
First publication date:
March
1907
Publication date note: Scribner's Magazine (March 1907): 357.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/3
Rhyme: abab
Other poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson
